• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Growing Organic Food in Your Backyard

Grow Better Food!
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Seed Starting
  • Hoop House
    • Grow Tomatoes in a Hoop House
    • Grow Cucumbers in a Hoop House
    • How to Grow Carrots in Winter
    • Winter Sowing Made Better
  • Sponsor
  • Search
  • Subscribe

Why Start Seedlings Indoors in Summer?

by Bill Brikiatis

Like shopping for presents in July, it’s a little difficult to get in the mood to start seedlings indoors in summer. That’s because, for many gardeners, starting seedlings indoors has become ingrained as a late winter or early spring ritual.

But for certain vegetables, a summer batch of seedlings is a great idea because you can get a fall crop of cool weather vegetables that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

Still, starting seedlings in the summer is not a common practice.

Most backyard gardeners wouldn’t even consider the idea. It’s just too much work.

You may already be thinking to yourself that this is a goofy idea. But if you’re interested in getting more from your garden, you’ll want to suspend your disbelief for a minute to consider it.

Let’s take a sec to get the legal words out of the way. This article may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy from my partners, I will make a tiny amount of money at no cost to you. This in no way affects my recommendations.

Summer Seedlings
If you start seedlings indoors in summer, you don’t need grow lights.

Why are summer seedlings a good idea?

If you start seedlings indoors in summer, you get a jump on the fall growing season. So, for short time-to-maturity vegetables and herbs, you can start reaping the rewards almost as soon as it turns cool. For example, you can start scallions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and dill indoors in summer for a late fall harvest.

Soil block seedlings need enough sun so they don’t get too leggy, but also you don’t want them to dry out in the heat.

— Suburban Hobby Farmer

Here are four reasons why you may want to start seedlings indoors for the fall:

  1. Air conditioning helps plants germinate. In the heat of summer, it’s too hot for certain cool weather vegetables to sprout in the garden. But it’s cool and shady inside your house, and the conditions are just right.
  2. No heating pad needed. It’s warm enough that you don’t need a heating pad to facilitate germination.
  3. Sunlight is readily available. You don’t need grow lights. Just make sure there’s not too much sun and the seedlings don’t dry out.
  4. Avoid the normal pests. By the time the summer seedlings are transplanted, the normal cycle of pests has often run its course. For example, I wait until July to plant zucchini seedlings outside to avoid squash borer.
Broccoli Seedlings
Summer seedlings could make it possible to have a second harvest.

Soil blocks make for new possibilities

Using a soil block maker has made a number of new options available for starting seeds in the summer. By planting small seeds in soil blocks and then transplanting them in the garden, you can improve germination rates and maintain spacing between plant.

I used to think certain vegetables like lettuce, arugula, carrots, spinach and radishes would do better if you plant them directly in the garden. Now I know that it’s better to plant them in soil blocks at the end of summer and transplant them when the weather turns cool enough.

The key point here is making sure the soil block seedlings get enough sun so they don’t get too leggy, but also don’t dry out in the heat.

Some vegetables like spinach don’t do well in the heat. It’s best to keep them inside where it’s cool until they sprout. Then, do everything you can to keep them cool if it’s warm outside.

Sometimes it’s better to sow directly

The important point to consider when you start seedlings indoors in the summer is that most areas with cold winters have only a limited number of days between the start of cooler temperatures and the first hard frost. Sometimes the window is too short.

On the other hand, certain vegetables take too long to mature even if you start them indoors. You wouldn’t want to start a late summer crop of eggplant or tomatoes, for example, because they would never ripen in time.

Seed Starting Mix Test
Tomatoes would NOT be a good choice for summer seedlings.

Do you have the gumption?

Of course, starting seedlings takes a lot of work. Many backyard gardeners won’t have the gumption to start a second batch when the pleasures of summer beckon.

But there are times when “life events” prevent you from starting seedlings in the spring. It’s nice to know you still have the option to start fresh in the summer.

I started seedlings this year in March, but wish I had done more. I’m going to start a second batch for the fall now, rather than direct sow and battle the hot, dry weather.

Cucumber Seedling

Everything I Know About Starting Seeds

All my seed starting and seedling growing articles in one place.

Related articles that might interest you:

  1. Transplanting Seedlings Outdoors
  2. Don’t Use Compost Tea on Seedlings
  3. Which Seed Starting Mix is Best?

Suburban Hobby Farmer is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Pin
Share
Tweet

Filed Under: 1. Beginner -- Easy to Complete, Planting Tagged With: planting dates, seed starting

Primary Sidebar

Meet the Blogger

Bill Brikiatis

Hello! I’m Bill Brikiatis. I started this website in 2010 to help you get better at growing organic food in your backyard.

I’ve been growing fruits and vegetables for nearly all my life. And I'm over 60.

That’s not to say that I don’t make mistakes. I make plenty, then I write about them so both you and I get better at growing great things to eat.

You can read more about me and Suburban Hobby Farmer on my about page.

Most Popular on SHF

  1. How to Get Free Seeds from the U.S. Government. It's Easy If You Know How
  2. How to Use Chicken Manure Pellets in the Vegetable Garden
  3. Which Seed Starting Mix is Best? I Tested Them
  4. What Are the Benefits of Pruning Tomato Plants?
  5. I've Used a Rain Barrel Downspout Diverter for 10 years. Here's What I Know.
  6. Grow Millions of Cucumbers in a Hoop House
  7. I Shopped for Hoop House Kits. A Review of the One I Bought.
  8. Do Tumbling Compost Bins Work?
  9. Can you plant potatoes in the fall? Absolutely!
  10. What are the Best Potting Benches for Vegetable Growers?

Search This Site for Articles

Growing Tomatoes

Growing Tomatoes

Learn Everything I Know About Growing Tomatoes

Extending the Growing Season

  1. A Hoop House is a Tomato Growing Machine
  2. Coldframe Kits Make It Easy to Extend the Growing Season
  3. Grow a Million Cucumbers in a Hoop House
  4. I Shopped for Hoop House Kits. A Review of the Three I Considered
  5. Growing Salad Greens in Winter. Here's How to Do It
  6. Better Tomatoes with Walls O Water
  7. How to Grow Carrots in Winter
  8. Winter Sowing Made Better

Improving Soil

  1. How to Use Chicken Manure Pellets
  2. Three Important Soil Building Techniques
  3. Grasscycling and Composting Grass Clippings
  4. What is "Deep Litter" in a Chicken Coop?
  5. Why Grow Cover Crop and Which Ones?
  6. Mulching Raised Garden Beds
  7. Five Gardening Ideas from Building Soils Naturally
  8. Should You Use Neptune's Harvest Liquid Fertilizer?
  9. How to Use Aquarium Fish Water to Fertilize Plants
  10. Using Chop & Drop to Improve Your Soil
  11. How to Improve Your Soil
  12. What is OMRI? Why Should Organic Gardners Care?
  13. Winter Ground Covers for Vegetable Gardens

Collecting Water with Rain Barrels & Downspout Diverters

  1. My Automatic Downspout Diverter
  2. Rain Barrel Downspout Diverters
  3. Fixing an Overflowing Rain Barrel
  4. Oatey Mystic Rainwater Collection System / Downspout Diverter

Composting Articles

  1. Do Tumbling Compost Bins Work?
  2. How to Compost Faster
  3. Worm Composting Not So Easy
  4. Worm Composting Not So Easy, Part II
  5. Worm Composting Not So Easy, Part II
  6. Free, 77-page Worm Composting Guide
  7. Grasscycling and Composting Grass Clippings
  8. The Best Worm Food
  9. Making Compost in a Chicken Coop

Footer

My Recommendations

  • Start Here
  • Subscribe
  • Things I Like

SHF Info

  • Advertising Info
  • Affiliate Policy
  • Article Sponsorship
  • Privacy

Blogger

  • About
  • Contact

© Suburban Hobby Farmer 2020